Solvent based weather strip materials have been constructed with silicone resin for many years. Various ingredients, including boron nitride, have been added to these materials to produce the desired result of a long-lasting, quiet and abrasion-resistant coating. Many of these coatings have been manufactured using solvents that contain a high percentage of volatile organic compounds (VOC). The VOC content of coatings is strictly monitored and controlled in the United States by the Environmental Protection Agency and is also a concern in many other countries. Health hazards are also a concern of manufacturers and users of coatings containing solvent in that the coatings are often used in open spray booths that could easily contaminate workers. Accordingly, manufacturers have sometimes restricted the use of isocyanate-based two component coatings. Such restrictions, however, provide a great deal of difficulty to the industry in that there is no existing method of manufacturing a stable water-based coating containing boron nitride.
It would be advantageous to develop a water-based coating for use in weatherstrips, windshield wipers and the like that would perform as well as existing solvent-based coatings. Such a coating must provide high abrasion resistance, high weather resistance, good ice release characteristics and low noise. The coating must be capable of application on thermoplastic olefin compounds (TPO), thermoplastic vulcanate compounds (TPV) and ethylene-propylene-diene-terpolymers (EPDM) via spray, brush or dip and drag processes. It would also be advantageous to develop a method of manufacturing such a water-based coating.